Seahawks are winning despite the defense. And Bobby Wagner knows it
The bass banged off the walls of the locker room. Teammates laughed and roared with the music. It was yet another raucous Seahawks postgame party, the seventh one in nine weeks.
But Bobby Wagner wasn’t laughing.
The captain wasn’t smiling much, either.
The All-Pro middle linebacker knows what happened Sunday in Seattle’s overtime win over Tampa Bay is not sustainable for the Seahawks.
Not if this 7-2 team is to get into the playoffs then go deep in them this season.
Wagner knows allowing 34 points and 418 yards while again failing to consistently or even sporadically affect the quarterback—not until very late in the overtime victory over two-win Tampa Bay—is no way to defeat undefeated San Francisco next Monday night in an NFC West showdown, either.
“We have to do better,” Wagner said.
“We are getting the wins. We’ve just got to put it together. We have to be more disciplined. We’ve got to lock in a little bit more. And it’s on myself and the other veterans to make sure the message is not missed: Even though we are winning, we have to play clean football.”
Seattle is still using a base 4-3 defense in lieu of five defensive backs in passing situation the majority of the time (57 percent of snaps Sunday), more often than almost any other NFL team. It has given up 54 points and 764 yards in its last six quarters. And that was by one-win Atlanta and 2-6 Tampa Bay.
“We’ve got work to do,” outside linebacker Mychal Kendricks said.
“It’s obvious.”
Wagner says the most particular problem is fixable.
“First thing that just comes to my head in just discipline,” Wagner said.
He means discipline staying in assigned running and pass-rush lanes, in coverage assignments, avoiding penalties...discipline in everything, really.
Seattle’s defense got done gave away two leads in the fourth quarter. It sure looked and felt like the Seahawks won because the defense didn’t have to play in overtime. A favorable flip of a coin to begin overtime then Russell Wilson and the offense driving to the winning touchdown ensured Winston and the Bucs wouldn’t get another chance to burn Seattle’s defense.
The only time I notice Wagner grin after the game was when I asked him if he was concerned.
“I don’t use the word ‘concerned,’” he said, allowing that smile.
“I think there are things that we’ve got to improve. But I think that, when you play this game long enough, I’ve been in situations where we weren’t creating turnovers, and we started getting turnovers. There were a lot of games a couple years back where, you know, we couldn’t finish. We weren’t closing out games. Guys would come out there and guys would drive on us and make points.”
His point is: there’s time over the final seven games of the regular season to fix this.
Yet one problem in particular has advanced from persistent to chronic.
Seattle’s continued inability to not only sack but at least affect opposing quarterbacks is what got them in a 21-7 hole in the first half against the Buccaneers. It’s what allowed Jameis Winston to throw for 335 yards. It’s why Atlanta fill-in quarterback Matt Schaub threw for 460 yards in his first start in four years. It’s why Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson ran for 116 yards against Seattle. Two weeks before that, the Rams’ Jared Goff wasn’t pressured while throwing for 395 yards against the Seahawks.
Heck, Andy Dalton, now benched for winless Cincinnati, torched the Seattle for 418 yards passing in the opener.
That’s chronic.
The first sack of Winston on this latest Sunday came in the fourth quarter. And it took linebacker blitz over the center by Wagner to get that. Wagner ruined the Bucs’ drive when it was a 24-24 game.
“We thought we would find more ways to get to the quarterback,” coach Pete Carroll said, “and we only got him a couple times. ...
“We thought we would make more plays on the ball, as well. ...It was really just covering them or pressuring them. And we didn’t get enough of it.”
The Seahawks were credited with one quarterback hit, and it was a gift. Tackle Poona Ford put a hand on the un-affected Winston well after a completion in the third quarter.
Seattle is 25th in the 32-team NFL with just 15 sacks in nine games. Ziggy Ansah remains a non-factor in his Seahawks debut season. The 2015 Pro Bowl end has just one sack through nine games. He’s been hurt and inactive for three of those.
Jadeveon Clowney also had no sacks and no QB hits against Tampa Bay. The All-Pro in his five years with the Houston Texans before his trade to Seattle in September has two sacks through nine games of his contract year.
That’s not going to get him the $20 million per year he’ll be seeking in free agency after this season. Nor will two sacks by Clowney get the Seahawks far in the playoffs, if they get there.
It’s good to be 7-2 where we’re sitting at,” Clowney said. “But we know, and as everybody in this locker room knows, we’ve got to improve and get better. ...
“I just know that it isn’t up to our standards here and what we talk about. That’s all I do know.”
An example of the crushing effects of the Seahawks not getting near the quarterback: In the second quarter Winston had time to look at multiple receivers, then step up in the pocket. No NFL defensive back can cover for the seven or so seconds Winston had to look for the elite Mike Evans, not with league rules against contacting pass catchers down the field. Rookie safety Marquise Blair, making his third NFL start, stayed with Evans for a while—but not as long as Winston had time to wait. Evans eventually broke free from Blair into the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown.
Seattle trailed 21-7.
By halftime, the Seahawks’ defense had allowed 41 points and 557 yards in less than four full quarters dating to the previous week’s escape at Atlanta, when a 24-0 lead became a 27-20 win. Seattle was fortunate after letting Tampa Bay move 28 yards in 18 seconds in position for a 50-yard field goal. Rookie Matt Gay pulled the kick wide left to keep the Seahawks down only 21-13 at the half.
Tampa Bay had scoring drives if 12, 10 and 10 plays. Seattle allowed 199 yards and 17 points in those three long Bucs marches.
“I think we need to trust each other more, especially in the run game,” linebacker K.J. Wright, the longest-tenured Seahawk, said. “A lot of yards. A lot of long drives.
“We have to get on the drawing board and figure it out.”
With the way Tampa Bay was moving all over Seattle’s defense, the game really came down to the coin flip to begin overtime. Had the Buccaneers won it, chances are the Seahawks would have lost the game. But the Seahawks won it, and their offense won the game with a touchdown on the opening possession of OT. The malfunctioning defense never did have to go back on the field, and that, damningly, was Seattle’s best chance for victory.
Relying on which way a coin lands is not a sustainable way of winning.
As they stay in so much base 4-3, the Seahawks appear conflicted by their front four getting next to no pressure on the quarterback each week. At times, blitzing Wagner and Kendricks has made QBs get rid of the ball early.
Seattle’s only sacks on Sunday came from Wagner and Kendricks. One each, on blitzes.
Asked what the difference was for the Seahawks in getting to Winston some more late in the game, for a change, Wagner said “blitzing.”
But Carroll and coordinator Ken Norton Jr. appear reluctant to blitz more often. The seem leery of exposing Seattle’s often iffy pass coverage down the field. This defense also needs Wagner and Kendricks guarding receivers to help the four defensive backs.
Veteran linebacker K.J. Wright said it’s not coaching or system.
“The scheme is great. The scheme is fine,” he said. “But it’s like, you’ll see that we’ll run a certain coverage and the guy that’s supposed to be there is not there.
“So if you just fit up the scheme, the scheme will execute itself.”
I asked Kendricks if the defense was “torn” deciding whether to blitz more.
Kendricks stared back and said, “Torn?”
Then, after a long pause, Kendricks said, “That’s a hard question.
“I don’t know.”
Neither do the Seahawks right now.
“I don’t think anybody on this defense expected them to be able to move the ball the way that they did,” Wagner said of the 2-6 Buccaneers, who have lost four straight games. “Especially with the way we didn’t finish last week (at Atlanta), to come out like that, we have to do better.
“We will be better.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2019 at 7:31 AM.
